My mom used to tell us the one who found the bay leaf in her soup was the lucky one for the day. However, I think it was just something she made up to keep us from complaining that there was a bay leaf in our soup!

Yeah, like the person who just broke their tooth on the one cherry pit left in the cherry pie is the lucky one.

I also have bay leaves on hand - I use them in soups and chilli.

Logged

After cleaning out my Dad's house, I have this advice: If you haven't used it in a year, throw it out!!!!.

Don't forget you can freeze fresh herbs- I get them on special offer, and just pop them in the freezer. I don't even bother chopping them, I just crumble them into the food still frozen. Parsley and coriander are good. They don't look as pretty or have the texture they would have fresh, but if they are going to be cooked they are fine.

If you like Indian food, I'd add cardamon, coriander, mustard powder, and tumeric. If you like spicy food, get some cayenne pepper and hot pepper flakes. Bay leaves definitely - they add a subtle but important tastes to many stews and soups. Dried ginger - I use both dried and fresh, as they are very different from a cooking perspective (baking almost always uses dried, for example). Dill is nice too - fresh is lovely, but dried works quite well for a lot of things. If like Chinese food, some Chinese five spice powder comes in handy.

There are some spices where I use both whole and ground, whole mustard seed and cumin seed in particular (good in flavoured rice, for example). I use whole caraway for cabbage dishes. I also use celery seed - a little goes a long way, though.

Three dried herbs I never buy are parsley, chives and cilantro - I find that when dried they have very little flavour and mainly add colour. I use them fresh, or not at all (and parsley is hard to come by for me). I prefer granulated garlic to the fine powder - I find it has a nicer flavour.

For baked chicken, one of my stand bys is to sprinkle it with cumin, paprika, salt and pepper before baking.

I actually like a bit of clove with chicken, combined with onion. My grandma did this, and so did her mother. Great grandma was from southern Sweden, but I don't think this is necessarily from Sweden because I have read about *clove struck onions* in many recipes.

I don't buy the whole cloves, though - just use the ground. When I make chicken soup or chicken fricassee I add a nice big pinch of clove. Both of these dishes are also made with onion at our house.

Swedish yellow pea soup[artsoppa] is good with a bit of clove, too, perhaps because it also has onion and pork.

Mine are pretty much the same as what's been mentioned, but 2 others I'd add are onion powder and celery flakes. On the latter, it can be hard to find, but I know Kroger (King Soopers where I am) has a generic of it. I like it a lot better than the salt or seed. It seems to give more flavor.

Also, on garlic, I always keep those little jars on hand where the garlic is minced or chopped in oil.